


Talent Night Truths

by mandykaysfic



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Hypnotism, Implied Relationships, M/M, Talent Shows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-07
Updated: 2017-04-07
Packaged: 2018-10-15 21:19:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10557864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mandykaysfic/pseuds/mandykaysfic
Summary: Kathryn and Chakotay participate in Tom's Talent Night act, but the outcome is not what everyone expected.





	1. Chapter 1

“A big thank you to the ‘Flexibles’ acrobatic team from Security. Let’s give them another round of applause for their demonstration of strength, skill and apparent double-jointedness.”

Neelix, in his usual capacity as host, led the audience in their appreciation and the five members of the ‘Flexibles’ formed another intricate human pyramid before leaving the stage with leaps and bounds. Gerron and Tabor, who were responsible for any props, placed some chairs in a half circle on the stage, and ran off to the side where they watched the show from the wings.

“Now for our final act, we welcome Mr. Tom Paris, who will mesmerize you with his hypnotic talents. Be prepared to let your inhibitions roam free! You could find yourself singing like the legendary Jazz-lyn Mirinda, dancing like Lannis Devlin or even howling like a targ. Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for To-o-om Paris!” Neelix clapped enthusiastically as he backed off the stage and scuttled to take a seat in the audience. 

Tom had been practicing his Talent Night act for some months now within the setting of a holoprogram, and this was the first anyone on Voyager was to see it for real. He glided onto the stage, comfortably dressed in midnight blue trousers and a matching vest worn over a soft long-sleeved white shirt with billowing sleeves. He pulled a gold pocket watch out of his pocket and began swinging it in the time-honored fashion of stage hypnotists, while he began his spiel about the history of hypnosis and what he was going to do. As he put the pocket watch away, he wound up his introduction.

”Remember, nobody will do or say anything they would not normally do or say, it will only be as if they let their inhibitions loose. If it is not part of your subconscious make-up to cluck like a chicken, then hypnosis will not make you cluck! You will just be allowing your inner child to come to the surface. Now, may I have some volunteers from the audience?”

Tom waited, a small smile on his face. Within a few minutes, three of the five chairs were filled. B’Elanna had volunteered Harry, who didn’t have the heart to let his friend down. Jenny Delaney had pushed Megan up onto the stage, and Chell had taken a chair as well. Despite a few minutes heckling from various parts of the audience, people like Ken Dalby and Sue Nicoletti had remained firmly in their seats.

“Come on, just two more volunteers.” Tom’s voice was at its persuasive best. A wicked glint appeared in his eyes and his honeyed tones poured out over the audience. “Captain Janeway. Commander Chakotay. How about setting a good example and being the final two volunteers? Remember, you will not do or say anything that will be against your personal ethics, or even held against you by the rest of the crew.”

Kathryn Janeway’s sense of humor asserted itself, and she made a snap decision. She stood, pulling the Commander up with her, and dragged him up on to the stage. After all, she reasoned, if she could perform a ballet dance she’d not done for thirty years in front of the crew, she could do this too, and besides, Chakotay had never performed at any of the Talent Nights. Scuttlebutt was that this was one person a large proportion of the crew  
would love to see perform, and they wouldn’t be too fussy what they watched. He could probably recite the Vulcan poetry that Tuvok had been forbidden to repeat after his first and only Talent Night reading. This was one way to get Chakotay to participate.

“I’ll get you for this,” murmured Chakotay into Kathryn’s ear, as they took the last two seats to thunderous applause.

Tom thanked them for agreeing to participate, and then went straight into the rapid induction method he’d only practiced on holocharacters. To his relief it worked perfectly. Beginning with Harry, and being kind to his friend, he told him the environmental controls had gone off line. He verbally raised the temperature a few degrees at a time, keeping a realistic patter of ‘Bridge-speak’ going. Harry began to sweat, a little at first,  
then more profusely. His hair grew wet, and damp patches appeared on his clothes. Tom gave Harry permission to undo the buttons on his jacket, which he did with relief, after checking first with the captain. Everybody laughed at such typically Harry-like behavior. He then shrugged his jacket off completely, and stood in a sweat-soaked shirt.

Tom encouraged Harry to undo the buttons on his shirt, but when they were half undone, he announced the environmental controls had been restored, and Harry could leave his shirt on. Groans of disappointment sounded throughout the audience. Harry’s temperature returned to normal. Those sitting closest to the front were able to see the sweat visibly dry. Tom quietly counted Harry out of his trance, and allowed him to return to his seat off stage.

Megan Delaney was Tom’s next victim. He considered exploiting Megan’s fear of creepy-crawlies, but stuck to telling her gravitational controls were off line and gravity was now at various levels, none normal. By keeping the instructions to something the participants had already experienced, Tom knew their subconscious would accept that and they would behave appropriately. It was still entertaining for the crew to watch and shouldn’t upset any of the volunteers.

Chell talked. Almost non-stop. He was said to be able to talk underwater, or with a mouth full of marbles, so Tom gave him a code word. Whenever Chell heard Tom’s voice, and only Tom’s voice, say the word, no sound would emerge while he was speaking. A second word would restore his vocal abilities. By careful pitching of his voice, and facing Chell to say the words, Tom made sure that none of the audience heard the codes. Chell had a repertoire of humorous Bolian tales so Tom encouraged him to begin one and proceeded to alternate the code words so even as Chell kept speaking and gesticulating, sometimes no sound emerged. As Tom counted Chell back to normal, he took the control words back, and reassured himself they were no longer acting as triggers before allowing Chell to return to his seat.

Now only Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay remained on the stage. However, due to the Chakotay’s many years of meditation, it was easy for him to slip into a hypnotic state, and he was in a much deeper trance than Tom, or even Chakotay himself realized.

Tom hadn’t given much thought to what he’d get the two most senior staff to do, so he turned to the audience and asked for suggestions.

“PDA. We wanna see a PDA.”

Tom wasn’t sure who’d called out the original suggestion, but it was taken up with alacrity, as more people added their voices.

“PDA. PDA. PDA.”

Tom raised his arm, gesturing for quiet. “You realize that if they subconsciously do not wish to do this, then no instructions I give will make them.”

“Just get on with it, Paris.”

That had to be Dalby, thought Tom to himself. He turned to Kathryn and Chakotay and gave the suggestion.

“Captain, Commander, the crew would like to see you acknowledge your love, so in the interests of raising morale, please give us a public display of affection.”

What happened next, nobody could have foreseen.

Kathryn Janeway’s brows drew together, she crossed her arms, and in a low voice that penetrated to every corner of the room announced, “There will be NO PDA’s on my ship.”

“But what about the love?” wailed a female voice.

“There is NO love.” Janeway’s tone was at its most uncompromising.

A sudden movement drew everyone’s attention from the captain. Chakotay had risen from his chair and moved to stand in front of Kathryn. In his mind, Tom’s voice echoed.

“Acknowledge your love. Acknowledge YOUR love. Acknowledge YOUR LOVE.”

All the feelings he’d kept reined in pushed their way to the surface. He would acknowledge his love. He would enfold his love in his arms and they would know the depth of his feelings. He turned away from the captain and moved like lightning to where Tom stood in the centre of the stage. He wrapped his arms around the tall blond and kissed him thoroughly.

For a moment, after Tom recovered from the shock, he returned Chakotay’s kisses, but then pushed him back and performed the reversal of the rapid induction to bring Chakotay out of his trance. Clear brown eyes sent an unspoken message and Tom was pulled back into the strong embrace and the kissing resumed, the audience forgotten, despite the fact they had almost raised the roof with their approval of the unfolding drama.

Talent Night was never going to be the same again.


	2. Shades of Red

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew's reactions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for lj's Voyager Week challenge 'blushes'.

Greg Ayala punched his fist into the air and uttered a triumphant “Yes!” then reddened slightly as people turned to stare at his exuberant reaction to the spectacle on the stage. Well, they weren’t to know he’d been waiting for this to happen for a long time.

B’Elanna sighed with relief and her cheeks glowed as she realized she could stop feeling guilty about breaking up with Tom and forming a relationship with Harry.

Next to B’Elanna, Harry felt his face scald with embarrassment. He was already on edge, expecting to be teased about his part in Tom’s Talent Night hypnosis act, but thankfully the totally unexpected finale would draw attention away from his performance. He didn’t think he was a prude, but he’d always thought Tom was a ladies’ man. He had no idea that Tom would welcome being on the receiving end of an increasingly passionate kiss from Commander Chakotay, and that he would respond in kind.

The Delaney sisters sported identical rosy cheeks as they realized their chances with two of the best-regarded men on board were finished.

The incarnadine effects of realizing how many credits he was going to win in a long forgotten betting pool about Chakotay and Paris turned Chell’s blue skin an interesting shade of heliotrope.

The features of the two most unemotional members of the crew could be discerned to show a faint erubescence if anyone had bothered to examine Tuvok and Seven at the time, but there was no disapproval there, unlike with Ken Dalby, who was in the minority. His ruddy features deepened to an unprepossessing terracotta as he fought to keep his temper.

The minds of Nicoletti and Henley crawled around the gutter as they began a scurrilous conversation regarding the future antics of Tom and Chakotay. A particularly ribald remark by Henley caused Nicoletti to blaze crimson, as she wondered if such a thing were possible.

Samantha was sitting nearby, but luckily didn’t hear any of their comments, as she was lost in a romantic haze, her cheeks tinged with a delicate peach as she watched the scene unfold.

Kathryn Janeway sat on the stage, ramrod straight, her arms crossed firmly over her chest and her lips pressed tightly together. The color had drained from her face, leaving it white, with only two hectic patches of mottled red staining her cheeks. 'Angry' didn’t do her justice. Even the dullest crewmember did not need much imagination to see the steam coming from her ears as she surveyed her first officer and chief helmsman. She tapped her foot as the kiss showed no sign of stopping.

Tom’s fair skin flushed with arousal. He had long gotten over the surprise he’d felt when Chakotay had turned from the captain and begun to kiss him. The hypnotic instruction had been to ‘acknowledge your love’ at the instigation of the audience, who were hoping for a PDA between the Captain and her First Officer. Nobody had known that Chakotay’s real love was Tom. Tom quickly reversed the trance, and was stunned when Chakotay kept kissing him. By now they had both forgotten Tom had not counted Kathryn up from her trance.

Chakotay’s blush warmed his bronzed skin, which did not totally protect him from flaming scarlet when the kiss finally drew to an end and both men, who now looked incandescent, realized where they were.

Even Neelix had colored up beneath his polka dots; his ears rubified, and the florid color of his cheeks clashed with his outfit. He remembered his duties as Master of ceremonies and wound the evening to a close with a few well-chosen words. His fuchsine hue gradually faded. ‘Breakfast With Neelix’ would be a full show tomorrow, as he planned interviews with crew mew members to get their reactions to a truly memorable Talent Night.


	3. Talent Night Fallout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew speculate.

“I tell you, I could feel the changes in gravity. And Harry was genuinely sweating. I was sitting really close and by the time Tom told him to do up his shirt, the sweat was literally running down his face and chest, and then it dried up almost in an instant when Tom gave the order.”

Megan Delaney was holding forth in the Mess Hall after the previous night’s Talent Quest. She was sharing lunch at a table with her sister Jenny, Samantha Wildman and Sue Nicoletti. They had thoroughly dissected the biggest item of gossip during breakfast, that being ‘The Kiss’ between Tom and Chakotay, discussion topics including what the two men would do about it, how hot it was, why hadn’t anyone seen it coming, how unfair it was, even it was the sexiest thing anyone had seen in ages, and what Captain Janeway’s reaction would be over the next few days. Now, after covering the highlights of ‘The Kiss’ again, the conversation had turned to Megan’s experience of being hypnotized and hypnosis in general.

“You’re lucky Tom didn’t tell you the floor was covered in creepy-crawlies. You obviously would have believed him. We could have seen you jumping up on to your chair, screaming in terror,” put in Sue. Megan’s fears were well known to her friends. “Or maybe he doesn’t know about that particular phobia of yours?”

“Oh, he knows all right,” Megan shuddered. “I must remember to thank him. That would have been really, really embarrassing.”

“Hey, I’ve got an idea. You should ask him to hypnotize you so you aren’t afraid any more. After all, hypnosis is not just a stage act,” suggested Samantha. “I mean, all that time he spends in Sick Bay – he should have some idea of how to go about it. If Tom doesn’t know the correct technique, I’m sure it will be in the Doctor’s data base.”

“Maybe I will, Sam. Thanks for the idea,” said Megan. She turned to her twin, who had been very quiet during the last exchange. From her expression, Jenny had obviously not heard a word that had been spoken for some time. Megan poked her gently.

“Where’ve you been, Jen?”

“Hmmm? Sorry. I’ve been thinking.”

“No kidding! What about?”

“The past. Specifically our past. Do you think we’ve always been twins?” Jenny looked into Megan’s eyes. 

“Huh? Run that by me again.”

“Do you think we have always been twins? In previous lives,” she clarified. “Could we have been parent and child? Brothers? Lovers? I mean, we have a special connection. I wondered how far back it went.”

Now it was Megan’s turn to lapse into thought as she considered what Jenny just said.

Sue took up the thread of conversation when it became obvious Megan wasn’t going to respond any time soon. 

“What brought about that thought?” she asked with interest.

“Tom’s hypnosis. I wonder if he knows anything about past lives regression. I would love to know who I’ve been in previous lives,” said Jenny, longing evident in her tone.

“Why? Haven’t you got enough to contend with here in the delta quadrant without having to deal with old stuff you can’t change anyway?” Sue was more interested in the present and future than the past.

“Maybe Tom and Chakotay were lovers in previous lives and the hypnotic trance unlocked the…the…the connection between the two of them,” interjected Samantha, plainly charmed with her idea.

“And maybe Janeway has kept them apart before!” sniggered Sue. “If looks could kill, those two would have been vaporized.”

“Say, have you realized, neither Tom, Chakotay nor Janeway appeared at breakfast, and they’re not here for lunch. What do you think is happening?” wondered Jenny as she pushed back her chair. She touched Megan on the shoulder. “C’mon. We’ve got to get back. Sue, if you hear anything in Engineering, let us know tonight.”

“You bet!”

“Where are you headed, Sam?”

“Sickbay.”

“Oooh, is Tom going to be there?”

“No. Not unless there is an emergency.”

“You may hear something anyway. We’ll be waiting for you at the end of the day.”

“Come back to my quarters at 21:30 for supper. Naomi will be in bed then.”

The girls were all smiling as they nodded their acceptance and headed back to their duties, keen to find out what the afternoon would bring.

END


End file.
